Person Page - 887

     Troy Ellis Dunbar was also known as "Buck". He was born on 3 July 1906.¹ He was the son of James Franklin Dunbar and Malinda J. Seaton.² Troy Ellis Dunbar married Edith B. Copp, daughter of Bruce Bernie Copp and Bertie Broyles, on 19 October 1924. Troy Ellis Dunbar died in August 1975 at Chuckey, Washington Co., TN, at age 69.¹

     Truen Irene Dunbar was born on 1 April 1935. She was the daughter of James Frank Dunbar and Lillian Jane Copp. Truen Irene Dunbar died on 10 November 1941 at Washington Co., TN, at age 6.

     Vivian Ellen Dunbar was born on 15 January 1905.¹ She was the daughter of Robin E. Dunbar and Blanche Stover.¹

     Wilma Gean Dunbar was born on 13 April 1937 at Washington Co., TN. She was the daughter of Troy Ellis Dunbar and Edith B. Copp. Wilma Gean Dunbar died on 18 April 1937 at Washington Co., TN.

     Achsah Duncan married Thomas I. King. Achsah Duncan was born in 1835 at Tennessee. She was the daughter of James Duncan and Sarah Hunt.

     Alan C. Duncan was born circa 1859 at Macoupin Co. (probably), IL. He was the son of James W. Duncan and Abigail Profitt. Alan C. Duncan died in 1882 at Franklin Co., KS.

     Allen John Duncan was born on 25 May 1892 at Iowa. He married Myrtle Elizabeth Wyatt on 10 June 1912 at Henry Co., IA. Allen John Duncan died in July 1956 at age 64. He was buried in 1956 at Hillcrest Memorial Park, Ft. Madison, Lee Co., IA, Findagrave #167241119.

     Andrew Duncan was born on 26 July 1799 at Tennessee. He was the son of Joseph Duncan and Ann Shaw.

     Ann Shaw Duncan was born on 6 February 1813 at Washington Co., TN. She was the daughter of Joseph Duncan and Molly Allison. Ann Shaw Duncan married Samuel B. McAdams in 1831 at Washington Co., TN. Ann Shaw Duncan died on 7 July 1861 at age 48.

     Beatrice Ethel Duncan died on 20 March 1881. She was born on 20 March 1881. She was the daughter of Martin Kitzmiller Duncan and Lillian J. Ayars.

     Bernice Elaine Duncan was born on 18 March 1886. She was the daughter of Martin Kitzmiller Duncan and Lillian J. Ayars. Bernice Elaine Duncan died on 6 October 1887 at age 1.

     Note: did not marry. Birdie Irene Duncan was born in April 1874 at Girard, Macoupin Co., IL.^1,2 She was the daughter of Thomas Duncan and Elizabeth Kitzmiller.¹ Birdie Irene Duncan died in 1958 at Cairo, Alexander Co., IL. She was buried in 1958 at White Hall Cemetery, White Hall, Greene Co., IL.

     Bradley John Duncan was born on 8 August 1961 at Iowa. He was the son of John Devol Duncan and Audrey I. Moreland. Bradley John Duncan died on 18 March 2015 at Warren Co. (probably), IA, at age 53.

     Charles Gordon Duncan was born on 13 June 1825 at GA. He was the son of John Duncan and Elizabeth Abercrombie. Charles Gordon Duncan married Nancy Ann Starr, daughter of Joseph McMinn Starr and Delilah Adair. Charles Gordon Duncan died on 31 August 1882 at age 57.

     Chauncey Earl Duncan was born on 16 November 1879 at Iowa. He married Myrtle Jane Blayney on 22 March 1904 at Linn Co., IA. Chauncey Earl Duncan died on 3 July 1962 at age 82. He was buried in July 1962 at Green Center Cemetery, Morley, Jones Co., IA, Findagrave #49278686.

     Clair A. Duncan was born on 17 November 1907 at Illinois. He was the son of Martin Aubrey Duncan and Ethel Gertrude Herron. Clair A. Duncan married Doris Dell Griffith, daughter of Harker Dell Griffith and Louisiana Berry, on 18 February 1933. Clair A. Duncan died on 22 July 1991 at age 83.

     Clair Athol Duncan was born on 31 July 1882. He was the son of Martin Kitzmiller Duncan and Lillian J. Ayars. Clair Athol Duncan died on 12 December 1882.

     David Thompson Duncan was born on 28 May 1819 at Washington Co., TN. He was the son of Joseph Duncan and Molly Allison. David Thompson Duncan died on 8 June 1836 at Blount Co., TN, at age 17. He was buried in June 1836 at Providence Presbyterian Church Cemetery, Greene Co., TN.

     Delilah Duncan was born circa 1828 at Ohio.¹ She married Jacob Parrett, son of Leonard Parrett and Elizabeth House, on 31 May 1858 at Huntington Co., IN.¹

     Ella Bell Duncan was born circa 1866 at Macoupin Co., IL.¹ She was the daughter of Thomas Duncan and Elizabeth Kitzmiller.¹ Ella Bell Duncan married James E. Silkwood on 7 September 1893 at Greene Co., IL.

     Ermadonna Duncan was born on 9 August 1894 at Findlay, Shelby Co., IL. She was the daughter of Martin Kitzmiller Duncan and Lillian J. Ayars. Ermadonna Duncan died on 19 December 1915 at May, Christian Co., IL, at age 21.
Note: Myrna (Brooks) Hood wrote (given to me by Valerie M. Hudson):

Mary Sanders Duncan, who lived into the 1940s, (she died on 18 Dec., 1947) of course I did know --- as did most of my cousins, I'm sure. I remember "Cousin Mary" as an exceedingly prim and proper old lady, whose Victorian sensibilities I was forever being warned not to offend with my tom-boyish ways. As a result, I seemed to always be terminally tongue-tied in her presence. I seem to recall that I never saw her dressed other than in elegant black, usually an ankle-length gown with a white lace collar. Her legs, what one could see of them (and she would have called them "limbs" if she called them anything at all!) were always encased in black silk stockings. She had a rather mournful way of speaking and her accent that of pure New England. She had one stock comment in her conversation which inevitable came out in response to anybody's relating any kind of negative news --- from a cut finger to a total crop loss for the year: "Wa-al," she would drawl -- "Thaht's tooo bahd," in tones as sadly melancholy as a mourning dove's. There's no question but that she was the "grande dame" of the neighborhood; to commit even the slightest impropriety in her presence was unthinkable.

As mentioned elsewhere, Mary did have a husband, rather briefly. She married Robert Duncan (said to have been a minister) on 15 October, 1890. Robert died of typhoid fever on their wedding anniversary four years later. Some nine years after Robert's death, Mary took into her home a nine-year-old niece of Robert's, Donna Duncan. Donna was born on 9 Aug., 1894, in Findlay, Ill. Her father, Martin K. Duncan, had separated from her mother when the couple's four children were young. Lillie, her mother, had gone to California with the two youngest --- Donna and her sister, Pansie. By 1903, the mother's health failed and she sent Donna back to Illinois to live with her relatives. Donna's father was remarried by this time, so Mary Duncan, his sister-in-law, kindly took charge of Donna. Gwen Duncan, who married my father's first cousin, Malcolm Stewart of Moweaqua, was an older sister of Donna's. Malcolm Stewart's mother, born Tryphena Brooks -- a sister to my grandfather Charles Brooks -- married as her second husband (and his second wife) the same Martin K. Duncan who was the father of Donna as well as Gwen Duncan, who became Tryphena's daughter-in-law after being her stepdaughter! I know I shouldn't try to describe relationships of this complicated nature - on paper, they never seem to come out right. Suffice it to say, this Martin K. Duncan, brother of Mary Sanders' husband Robert Duncan, father of Gwen and Donna, and second husband of my great-aunt "Pheenie", has been described to me by my father as an utterly despicable character -- "A mean old buzzard", I believe is how he described Duncan. When I inquired as to why Aunt Phennie ever married him, my dad said he didn't know and added, "Anyway, she got rid of him --- divorced him, you know!" [Chalk up two more 19th Century divorces!]

At any rate, Donna Duncan grew up into a spirited and beautiful young lady; no doubt she found the atmosphere of the Garwood-Duncan establishment a bit of a "gilded cage"; it must have been thick with Victorian repression, as well as overstuffed elegance. Perhaps she was happier during her teen years, when she was sent away to school at Monticello Lady's Seminary. Donna died rather suddenly on the 19th of December, 1915, allegedly from and undiagnosed brain tumor. My father, Carl Brooks, who knew Donna very well (they were close to the same age), states that Donna had developed a severe infection of the sinuses in the fall of 1915 --- an infection that quickly worsened, apparently spreading to the lining of the brain, and proved to be incurable in those days before antibiotics. A specialist was called in from Decatur, but he, too, was helpless to find a solution; the solution was still 30 years in the future in the form of penicillin. It's said that the two attending doctors operated on the dying patient as the she lay on her little bed in the downstairs bedroom, as a last desperate measure to locate the suspected brain tumor. As eyewitness, (as I have heard the story, a girl who was hired live-in help at the time) later described the scene as "Blood everywhere -- the mattress was entirely soaked with blood and we later took it out and burned it. It was terrible!" This same young lady was later to hint darkly that Donna's death was a suicide, but I believe she may have been letting her imagination run away with her. My father remembers the occasion very well, and it certainly does appear that Donna died from a raging infection. The death-bed operation, of course, was not only futile, but barbaric when viewed from a present-day perspective.

Although such scenes of horror were not uncommon in those days, I suppose, it must have been nothing short of ghastly for the dying girl and her anxiety-stricken family. Such a sudden and tragic end to her beautiful young niece must have been a cruel blow to the aunt who had raised her. Small wonder I remember as always speaking in melancholy tones.

Roger and Mary's oldest son, Jake Vangeison, now age 12, confided in me during my latest visit to this house (which, of course is his home) that he doesn't like to be in the "front part of the house". "Have you seen ghosts?" I asked him. "Well --- I don't think so," he said, "but I got this creepy feeling when I'm near that bedroom where she died." I have to agree with the lad --- that small front bedroom where Donna Duncan died, which still contains the same little painted bedstead that was hers, is quite capable of eliciting a very strong emotional response from anyone who is more than usually sensitive to such things. If ever an old house was tailor-made to harbor ghosts, this one surely must answer the description.

Note: Lydia (Ayars) Duncan took three of her daughters to California: Gwen, Donna and Pansie. Gwen and Donna returned to Illinois shortly after the 1900 Census was taken. Gwen married Malcolm Stewart and Donna went to live with Mary Elizabeth (Sanders) Duncan. Pansie remained in California where she lived and died.

     Ethel Virginia Duncan was born on 4 June 1878 at Girard, Macoupin Co., IL.^1,2 She was the daughter of Thomas Duncan and Elizabeth Kitzmiller.¹ Ethel Virginia Duncan married William Clyde Springgate, son of Alex Springgate and Fanny (?), circa 1908. Ethel Virginia Duncan died on 12 July 1947 at age 69.

     Felix Grundy Duncan was born on 28 August 1855 at Cherokee Nation West (now AR). He was the son of William Wirt Duncan and Nancy Ann Starr. Felix Grundy Duncan died on 24 December 1897 at age 42.

     George Gilmore Duncan was born on 29 December 1908 at Iowa.¹ He was the son of William James Duncan and Stella Gertrude Gilmore.¹ George Gilmore Duncan married Wilma Merle Mitchell, daughter of Edward Andrew Mitchell and Martha Edna Clews, in 1936 at Minnesota. George Gilmore Duncan lived in 1983 at California.

     Gwendolyn Uhlma Duncan was born on 30 March 1884 at Illinois. She was the daughter of Martin Kitzmiller Duncan and Lillian J. Ayars. Gwendolyn Uhlma Duncan married Malcolm Wayne Stewart, son of James Gray Stewart and Tryphena Margaret Brooks, on 28 August 1903 at Sullivan, Livingston Co., IL. Gwendolyn Uhlma Duncan died on 30 December 1963 at Moweaqua, Shelby Co., IL, at age 79. She was buried in January 1964 at Westside Cemetery, Moweaqua, Shelby Co., IL.

     Howard H. Duncan was born on 28 January 1911. He married Virginia DeVault, daughter of Orgie Milton DeVault and Georgia Sprinkle Meredith. Howard H. Duncan died on 20 November 1990 at Sullivan Co., TN, at age 79.

     India Duncan was born circa 1870 at Georgia.¹ She married Charles Sullivan on 1 August 1905 at Shoshone Co., ID.

     Isabelle Duncan was born on 9 July 1908 at Carroll Co. (probably), VA.¹ She was the daughter of William Southern Duncan and Princess A. Gates.¹ Isabelle Duncan married Frank Shields DeVault, son of Joseph Gilbert DeVault and Nannie Elvira DePew, on 23 December 1933 at Mt. Airy, Surry Co., NC. Isabelle Duncan died on 25 January 1998 at Carroll Co., VA, at age 89 Dates per SSDI, last residence Hillsville. She was buried in January 1998 at Felts Memorial Cemetery, Galax, VA.

     Ivan Leonard Duncan was born on 7 September 1908. He was the son of Chauncey Earl Duncan and Myrtle Jane Blayney. Ivan Leonard Duncan married Florence Evelyn Pieper, daughter of Uriah Clifford Pieper and Odessa Carolina Tallman, on 4 April 1942 at Monticello, Jones Co., IA. Ivan Leonard Duncan died on 21 April 1994 at age 85. He was buried in April 1994 at Green Center Cemetery, Morley, Jones Co., IA, Findagrave #49278597.

     James Duncan was born on 8 January 1790 at Virginia. He was the son of Joseph Duncan and Ann Shaw. James Duncan married Sarah Hunt, daughter of Rev. Uriah Hunt and Sarah Jane Kincheloe. James Duncan died on 10 October 1865 at Girard, Macoupin Co., IL, at age 75. He was buried in October 1865 at Girard Twp. Cemetery, Girard, Macoupin Co., IL.